You can’t perform the same ritual twice: minds, materials, automobiles, and the emergence of form

Abstract

Following Gosden and Malafouris, this article explores why process archaeology provides a beneficial framework for understanding the emergent, selforganising dynamics of human existence. To demonstrate the potential of process archaeology for reframing discourses about humanity’s nature, this article examines automotive culture from evolutionary, ecological, developmental, and socio-political perspectives. Automobiles provide a robust example of how forms emerge from and transform flows of energy-matter across multiple dynamic scales. The article concludes with a reflection on symbolism and how American automotive culture can be understood as a form of cult ritual. Archaeology’s obsession with ritual stems from a Cartesian assumption that rituals are arbitrary manifestations of symbolic minds. Process archaeology understands ritual as a means of organising energetic flows of persons and things into stable forms that endure over time. This perspective supports exploring the emergence of symbolic relationships and cultural forms as a developmental entwining of cognitive and ecological processes.